DragonCon 2019

8/29/2019

It's been a while since you've heard from me on this blog.

Do you know why? You know why. It's only ever for one reason: because I'm writing.

But now the writing has ended. The time is nigh. The countdown has begun.

And no one knows about the secret machinations that have eaten up my time for the past several weeks in addition to my normal writing frenzy.

Now that the frenzy has ended, prepare for a slew of announcements from me over the next few weeks. The first of which is this: I just arrived at DragonCon in Atlanta!

For those of you at the convention who would like to meet me and complain in person about the inadequacy of my storytelling, I'm having a fan meetup on Saturday afternoon!

When: 5:00-6:30 PM on Saturday, August 31st.
Where: The courtyard of the Hyatt Place (which is not the main convention Hyatt; it's a smaller hotel about two hundred yards down the road). This one. If it's raining or way too hot we might meet in the cafe just inside the doors, but you won't miss us.
What: Typically this is an informal meet-and-greet thing where we just meet up and talk about the books. Last year we had about a dozen people, so it's not a big thing. Just chilling and talking and meeting you guys.
Who: Me and anyone who cares to show up.
Why: Because conversation with me is a non-stop thrill ride.

If you're at DragonCon, I hope to see you there!

If you're not at DragonCon, then brace yourself, because I will have news coming soon. Perhaps even very soon.

-Will

34 Comments

Aaron

8/29/2019 02:57:03 pm

Anyone who complains about this mans storytelling gets hit with a plastic spoon on the forehead.

Andrew

8/29/2019 03:04:42 pm

Don't you threaten me with a good time A-A-Ron!

Jarthon

8/29/2019 03:06:29 pm

Even very soon!? You are a cruel man Will. Now I'll be forced to reload the page every 10 minutes or so until it arrives.

On a (slightly) more serious note, I'm sad to say that I can't get to Georgia in two days, but I'm sure it will be a blast for everyone involved.

Currently Living Abroad

8/29/2019 10:29:39 pm

*checks prices on last minute flight from Europe* ... crap.

Jason Wang

8/29/2019 03:11:48 pm

Maybe I can force everybody in my family to go to Atlanta!!! P.S I hope you have a post actually soon. It was 3 weeks, maybe more, that you didn't put a blog post. Thought you were dead and had to be reincarnated as BATMAN.

Jeremiah

8/29/2019 03:18:56 pm

I'm exhausted and all I've done is drive and stand in line

Walter

8/29/2019 03:39:23 pm

ultimate troll move: this was all just a count-down to the pre-order

Kyle

8/29/2019 04:01:49 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hytg8uo48_U

8/29/2019 04:02:45 pm

I would be SO mad if that happened.

8/29/2019 04:39:15 pm

That's not a troll move, that is the truth. He's not gonna publish without significant time for news to get around

FloridaMan

8/29/2019 04:32:52 pm

Uncrowned is the last item I need for my hurricane kit

Keytar

8/29/2019 04:37:46 pm

Given his regular pace updating his Facebook profile picture, we should see the cover art of Uncrowned in a few days!

Adam

8/29/2019 04:44:28 pm

Will - Do you have a list of other potential fan meetups? I would love to drop by but I didn't know about this opportunity in time.

Jackson F Warner

8/29/2019 05:35:26 pm

The first time I've been sick in three years and you have a meet an greeting far from where I live.I've come to the conclusion that will wight new that I was sick and therefore he is a wizard!

Alpha reader

8/29/2019 06:17:13 pm

Wait, but I know. Does that mean I’m secretly a machine bent to your will? WHY ARE ALL OF THESE ONES AND ZEROS STREAMING PAST MY EYES!?!?!?

Cultivator of the Popping Herb

8/29/2019 06:48:34 pm

Sounds good, but will your twin Bill be there? He's the one I've been dying to meet.

Acyr1

8/29/2019 07:50:39 pm

Just got my dragoncon plans canceled because some people are probably going to want their power restored after this hurricane hits. Just selfish if you ask me. Was looking forward to meeting you, I guess I will just have to settle for the next books. Keep up the great work!

Robert

8/29/2019 08:03:54 pm

Awesome, I can't wait for the new books (especially Uncrowned).

Speaking of Cradle I have a few questions.

In Ghostwater it says about the Eye of the Deep tree thing:

"Two-thirds of the cages were empty, but it was still bright"

but then when Northstrider comes to collect it says:

"Out of four thousand and ninety-six possible Eyes, two thousand, four hundred and thirteen had been returned."

Since 2/3 of 4096 is 2731 I'd almost think the first statement was supposed to say 1/3 was empty but that's still a 300+ difference.

Another question is about Mercy and her book (and to a lesser extent the Akura paths in general).

In Ghostwater she says:

"...I'm on the Path of Seven Pages. And the first page, the Lowgold page..."

"There are seven techniques in this book, one for each page."

"She could push to open a page before her reach, and that book insoder her would lend her the power to use it. For a time."

And she uses (and says out loud) Page 2 and Page 3 to temporarily become highgold and truegold.

But in Underlord it says:

"...first page flipped to the second, and Mery felt her mastery of the Shadow's Edge returned to her in full. Then the third page, and the Nightworm Venom flooded back." when she gets her power back

and

" 'Chapter two,' she said, and the power of the Book of Eternal Night surrounded her. It's pages began to shift. 'Page four.' "

So are the pages techniques or stages of advancement or both? Shouldn't a technique be independent of the stage of advancement for the most part and vice versa? Also what are chapters?

Lastly, I noticed this timeline inconsistency (or at least it's implied):

"He had spent much of the last eight weeks with Fisher Gesha, crafting constructs..."

Then at the end during the fight in the vault it says:

"So three days ago, when Lindon had discovered what Dross could do for a Soulsmith, Gesha's resonance cannon was among the first projects he'd turned his mind to."

That makes it sound like the scene where Eithan gives Dross the dream madra scales and library happened only 3 days ago instead of over 8 weeks ago.

PS comments/questions like this every few months are my subtle strategy to show I'd make an excellent beta reader for Uncrowned and future Cradle books. Or any of your books really.

Pod

8/29/2019 08:44:59 pm

In general, Will is not a number guy. If you find those kinds of errors in the books, just make up a canon and move on. They’re usually mistakes. Hope that helps.

8/30/2019 06:15:45 am

You should bring these over to the Sub Reddit page. I bet you would get your answers pretty quick.

Lashan

8/30/2019 07:56:28 am

BlackMage

8/30/2019 08:50:50 am

1. The existing number of Eyes can fill up 2/3 of the cages, the balance 1/3 being surplus capacity for additional Eyes if required.

2. Each page is both a stage of advancement as well as a specific technique for that stage. Chapter 1 (Gold) is pages 1 to 3 and Chapter 2 (Lord) is pages 4 to 6/7. Page 7 should be Sage.

3. Should be two months instead of 3 days. WW maths :)

8/30/2019 01:22:31 pm

1. That doesn't make sense. That would mean there are about 7239 cages which is a random number (even if we treat it as an estimate) whereas 4096 is a very precise number, 2^12. Why would Northstrider make the tree with far more cages than Eyes? Even if he did, wouldn't it make more sense to make it some number more related to the number of eyes, like 8192 or even 6144? ie twice as much or 50% more as if he planned to make that many eyes and never got around to it?

2. But it's been explained before that techniques are (mostly) independent of advancement. Other than cases like Eithan's pure madra techniques where you need huge amounts of madra and madra levels are correlated with advancement, you should be able to do any technique in your path at any level, just with less strength/power/damage/precision/skill etc. Lindon was doing all 3 of his blackflame techniques as a Jade, just poorly and for not as long. He could have been doing the SoulCloak before Ghostwater too if he'd ever thought to try it. And Yerin's Endless Sword could stay "like a storm" forever, just a stronger storm as she advances if she didn't learn the different "levels" of mastery; that kind of implies that she could master the different levels at any stage. Not exactly the same thing since it's technically the same technique but just another example of advancement being mostly just a power scale, not a skill tree (other than getting soulfire and opening your soulspace.

The chapter thing is one interpretation (though those are very short chapters) but why not just say Page 4? It's still page 4 whether it's considered a separate chapter or not. She never had to say "Chapter 1, Page 2" or "Chapter 1, Page 3", why should she have to say "Chapter 2, Page 4"? It seems like if it were required to say Chapter, it'd make more sense to say "Chapter 2, Page 1", because then it's actually required to differentiate with plain "Page 1" (in the book).

3. Agreed.

@Andrew

I don't do reddit much, except occasionally browsing, and mostly on my phone which isn't good for typing long comments. Feel free to crosspost these to reddit though and maybe I'll check out the responses.

8/30/2019 01:32:48 pm

@BlackMage addendum

I may have misread/misinterpreted your 1. If you meant it as the current total number eyes, 4096, could fill up 2/3 of the cages, then yes the tree would have 6144. Is 2413 close enough to 2048 for Lindon to see "2/3 were empty"? Maybe, but I still don't really buy that. I feel like a Monarch would be more precise and make exactly as many Eyes as there are cages and the perfect power of 2 thing reinforces that for me. Also the "Out of 4096 possible eyes, x had been returned" sentence reads to me like he's looking at the tree and "possible eyes" is the same as cages because you can't return more eyes than there are cages. That's not the only read, like you said he could be thinking "how many eyes I set loose in the world" but that's not how I read it.

8/31/2019 03:20:42 am

@ Robert re #2, please refer to the text you've quoted in your OP. Some techniques are like class skills. You have to be at a certain level to use them. Mercy can use techniques above her current level but only for a short period of time.

P.S. re #1, there are two possible explanations - (1) WW: "I think I will embed some deep philosophical meaning to these numbers. I'm sure some of my readers are smart enough to figure out this Easter Egg". or (2) WW (reaches behind to his ass and pulls): "Oooooh ... nice numbers!!"

Concerned Reader

8/29/2019 09:13:50 pm

Dear Will, please try not to get eaten by a dragon at DragonCon. Otherwise, who would published the next book? You know what you should do just in case? You should put the book on amazon early just as a precaution. You wouldn't want your readers to starve to death would you? You wouldn't do that to your readers would you?

Introvert unite

8/30/2019 12:18:20 am

Dragoncon sounds amazing. Except I hate human contact outside of work. So I'll buy a mug as support. Nothing again you.

Nitin Shekhar

8/30/2019 08:18:58 am

Cover announcement on 1st of September. Book announcement in first week. Book on 1st of October (almost).

Lucas

8/30/2019 08:27:35 am

Dear Will,

You should name an heir to your writing just in case you do get eaten by a dragon. Some possible up and comers who might be worthy of your writing to carry on your story (once again should you get eaten by a dragon): Sanderson, Rothfuss, Tolkien. I wouldn’t consider Martin worthy.

David Hawks

8/30/2019 12:14:39 pm

Brandon Sanderson. Name Brandon Sanderson your in case of emergency author. He did an amazing job finishing the wheel of time series for Robert Jordan

Ryan

8/31/2019 06:30:45 am

Unpopular opinion: I love the first 2 books in any Sanderson series. All following books leave me feeling as if there is no point to the continue. It's like the either the plot is fully reveled or at the very least I feel I am not looking forward to anything. Not so with Will.

Kris

8/30/2019 08:46:03 am

I really wish you'd have published the meet up information last year to your blog. I even bought a paperback of Unsouled for you to sign...*sigh*. This year I unfortunately have family medcal issues that precluded me going. Have a great time, enjoy whatever flavor of panels/shopping/cosplay watching is your thing! I loom forward to hearing the book news when you've recovered.

Nerevar

8/30/2019 01:03:57 pm

Would love to come, alas, it is a continent away.
But good news travel with speed of light and cant wait to hear them.
Good times :)

Matt

8/31/2019 12:06:10 pm

I'll be there! Super excited that you'll be here. May be a bit late.

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.

DragonCon 2019

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In which we ramble on. And by we, I mean me.

DragonCon 2019

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In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.